Tuckman

has he ever flipped? I think that if he did give up on cranks for a tournament, people might think he was sick or something. i think the only time I've seen him flip was in a segment of the Bass Pros. I don't think there's a segment of fishing techniques that he can't do......if he has to. KVD won a classic flipping the Louisiana Delta

Canandaigua Smallie pushing 6lbs White lady Sebile 125. September 2010 Wish I could of got a better pic but I was fishing alone.

I have a few smallmouth lakes that are pea soup for most of the year. You might have even fished the best one? Chautauqua? I know some Ohio guys get over there every now and then. Best inland lake for 5+lb smallies that I have ever been on...Best muddy water bait?- Big Yamamoto Flappin' Hog :-X...That thing moves 3 times as much water as a tube, and is a smallie killer.

I don't get the erratic action out of a BBZ Shad that I can get out of a sebile 125. I usually fish my Sebiles like a jerkbait and I was still getting fish on them when the water was down to around 50 degrees this fall. IMO the sebile 125's swim alot better than the sebile 95's, but I do like fishing the 95s on a spinning rod overtop spawning beds. Soft swimbaits have been awesome for me. I have not thrown the hollow bellies much because I have not yet any reason to deviate from the keitech's (except being overpriced, lol). I throw mine on a GYCB swimbait head. Also to avoid losing expensive baits, I throw all of my swimbaits on 50lb braid without a leader. If the fish care, they didn't tell me, and when a fish bites on the long end of a 100' cast you just reel into him and hes hooked. I do use a rod with a soft tip though. 8-)

I agree that the Spro BBZ shad is a good way send a school of feeding fish back where they came from. On the other hand I have seen J Francho's swimbait box and have surmised that the man may have a few screws loose to toss that stuff up here. I DO plan to try the new baby BBZ shad this year for blind bed fishing on some of the lakes that I fish. The swimbaits that I throw are a white lady sebile 125, and a Keitech swing impact FAT. Both baits work great for size and numbers. I just destroyed the smallmouth on them this fall. The good thing is that I can drop around $100 and be set on swimbaits for the year. I can also throw them on the same 7' MH rods that I use for almost everything else.

its a 125, its the only size I use unless I am fishing for spawners on the beds, then I use a 95 on a spinning rod alot. 8-)

I am a dedicated sebile swimmer fan and I have a white lady tied on 100% of the time. I have picked off smallmouth and largemouth everywhere I throw it, regardless of the dominate forage pattern...Fish are coming up on the bait and almost all baitfish have a white belly. The only factor I really consider before tossing a swimmer is water clarity. The fish have to see it, then its game over

That 40-45 degree water smallmouth hair jig bite is fun

John, Believe it or not, I have finally started to allow jerkbaits in my boat again. I learned the way of the LC Pointer this fall. Those two brown slobs in the B&W pic slammed a pointer 100 on almost back to back cast. The one we weighed for lunker was 5.2lbs and I couldn't tell the difference between the two of them. I also have a awesome new dropshot bait to show you. In the two late season tournaments on Canandaigua this year we were culling out 10-15 good fish a day on that after I got on top of them. I have not been out after the steelhead yet this year but this weekend is looking prime, maybe sunday. I still gotta get all my gear out but Ill get ahold of you. Sandy is iced over, I have not got over to check Lanier Park yet. 8-)

Heres a few more... These are all cell phone pics so please excuse the quality

Well I fished a little later then normal this year, I decided to try out some of the late season Bass Tournaments because my regular summer bass tournament season did not go as well as I had planned. I was actually able to completely turn my season around in October and November and finished in the money in 4 of my last 6 tournaments and I weighed in some of the biggest bags of bronze that I have ever sacked. Almost 100% of my late season fish were were caught on on drop shot, 3/4oz Northstar Hair jigs, and LC Pointers

Next time I will look for dumber fish in practice... BTW John, I went out the next day and lit up the brown giants on Canandaigua. Figures

I would guess that a bass would find a baitfish easier to digest. A crawfish would be generally easier to catch, being slower moving. I also consider bass to be opportunistic feeders that eat whatever happens to be the easiest meal in front of them at the time. The most important aspect as far as I'm concerned is the season and water temp...Up here in the Finger Lakes the fish generally feed up in the water column until the water gets into the 50's then they start feeding down on the bottom...in the summer many of the smallmouth here spend all their time suspended out in the baitfish all summer, even in water over 100' deep(but usually within 30' of the surface. I bet many of these fish go months without even seeing a crab but In the late fall and winter you can bet that these same bass will be down on the bottom digging crabs.

99% of the time a bass takes its prey head first. If you nose hook the bait with an open hook you will stick these fish. The finesse widegap hook is the perfect size so that it will not take away from the fluke glide but still offers plenty of exposed gap. You can skin hook it or use a hitching post. I also use braid with my fluke, and it really helps turn those long range strikes into hooked fish.

I have braid on 7 rods on my rod locker right now, and at least 4 of them have 10' flouro leaders. It completely depends on the type of presentation, water conditions, and the mood of the fish. With reaction baits, fishing in thick weeds, or in murky water a dark color braid tied directly to the bait is fine but anyone who thinks they will get as many bites drop shotting or tossing bottom contact baits on straight braid without a leader in clear water with sparse or no cover is the kind of person I like to fish against in tournaments. Sure you will still get fish throwing 100% straight braid but why not optimize your presentation?

To add on to on ww2farmer's post - If you put a brass bead between the tungtsten slip sinker and the split ring/swivel you get a nice tapping sound that helps the fish home in your bait in heavy weeds.

In my hodge podge collection of rods I have accumulated a few lowriders, a cara, a carrot stick, and a crucial. All are fine rods. The carrot stick is by far the most sensitive, I know some people have had reliablity problems with them but I have not had any problems so far. I have had great luck with falcon rods for the last few years. From the originals up to the caras.

Minn kota for sure. The last two bass boats I have bought have come with motorguides and I cant say enough bad things about them to fully express my displeasure with how poorly they have performed for me. But I will try ...In the last month alone the gatormount bracket snapped on my motorguide tour 67 and then a week later the circuit board started to go out on me and now I have to run it on high bypass to get it to work...My last motorguide pro series 55 had the same exact electrical problems. Both of my Motorguides also sucked in the weeds, draw to much battery juice in the process, and the shafts bend easily when run into a bank. Man, do I hate motorguide I have had two minn kota maxxums and a powerdrive and they have been great, in fact My boat is actually in the shop today to get my motorguide tour replaced with a minn kota maxxum 70 so I cant fish a tournament saturday and not have to worry about trolling motor problems.

Fluke with heavy wire hook on braid.

Yea you gotta be 21 on the US side. Ahhh...the duty free brings back good memories of the upstate rugby tournaments.

Unless you are using a quality unit, I would not worry about what it shows as "fish" but rather use the finder to locate structure and baitfish. The fish will be nearby. A high quality unit is worth its weight in gold.

Its an amazing lake. Dave Lefebre knows that lake front to back. look at the middle pic. http://www.chaut-lakebassmasters.com/lunker_pages.htm

If the water is higher than normal and muddy because of rain I go to the windblown side of the lake and fish the "original" bank (where is usually a nice drop). Black and blue jigs will be on the menu. The hot spots will generally replenish themselves in short order. This happened a few years ago on one of my local lakes and it was as consistent of a pattern as any.

The bass were on the banks long before the docks. I'm a dock fishing junkie. I work in close and careful including pitching directly into the boat lift. My style of dock fishing does bring confrontation at times from dock and marina owners I let them blow off their steam and usually don't even bother to acknowledge them. I know my rights to the water and that I am not doing anything wrong. In NY public water is public, and having a dock in the lake gives you no rights to the water under it at all. no matter how many hundred thousands that you paid for your lakefront property. I pay the taxes and buy the fishing licenses that allow me access to all public water. The thing that gets me is the marinas that literally take up acres of public water (many times in prime fishing spots like points and deep coves), and then try to run a tyranny over that part of the lake. The exception to the open public water law in NY would be a marina that has been created inland and linked to the lake by a channel like Hibiscus on Cayuga (which I still think is B.S. lol) My personal rules - When fishing docks Throw a weedless lure to avoid snagging up. If you do get hooked on the dock make every attempt possible to get the lure off the dock. Do not fish docks that have people on them unless it is a bikini clad coed and in that case give that dock extra attention. If someone is fishing off the dock go well around the dock to avoid disturbing their fishing. Skipping a 3/4 jig up under pontoon boats can test the nerves of even the most seasoned dock fisherman

I have one and love it. Mine is completely waterproof and has been dunked at least 5 times since I have had it...I dropped it into 4ft of fast water in maxwell creek while steelhead fishing last winter (While it was open because I was talking on it) I could see its screen shining down there plain as day. It took me about 2 minutes of prodding and dragging it with a stick to get it to where I could grab it, it came out working 100%. I was amazed. Both of my little brothers have these phones as well and they have all been through alot without a hitch. They are also just as shockproof as they say they are. Great phones. 8-)